Carpooling is a great way to cut driving costs, reduce traffic, save time, and reduce stress.
It also improves air quality and lowers greenhouse gas emissions.
Rates of traffic and parking congestion are reduced.
Many states in the US use toll roads to encourage carpooling.
The problem is that people cheat.
But a company calledCarmahas stopped HOV cheating in Texas, a state with over 50 toll roads.
I spoke to Carmas Chief Business Officer, Paul Steinberg, to find out more.
Vehicles with a verified HOV status then receive a 50% HOV toll discount.
Specifically, the app measures occupancy.
It counts how many phones are traveling together in a vehicle.
HOV tolls are becoming the norm
Over 45,000 daily commuters in Dallas-Fort Worth use Carma technology.
Carpool rates have increased by 15% in a little over a year.
And there are mandates on how fast that road must travel.
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Many are calling for the need to separate police from non-critical traffic enforcement tasks.
For catching HOV violators, the use of police is also a highly inefficient form of policing.
And they can only pull over two or three people an hour.
By using technology such as GoCarma, enforcement saves time and money.
Violation detection shifts from the police, reducing police shootings and police injuries in the line of duty.
For example, in California, a HOV lane violation ticket is a minimum $490 fine.
Many states even have additional fines for anyone caught trying to use a doll or dummy to fake passengers.
But maybe theres another way?
With GoCarma, violating users receive a series of escalating warnings.
Carma reports that 98% change their behavior before the fourth notification.
While habitual violators get suspended from HOV discounts for 30 days, they can still use the managed lanes.
Carma is upgrading their platform next year to allow cities to deploy congestion pricing easily.
They want to give you discounts.
If you change your time of day for commuting, theyre going to give you money back.
Carmas work in Texas has attracted national and international attention with interest in cities such as Bogota and Dublin.
The company received a Toll Excellence Award for innovation from the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.
Thats where all the oil is being burned.
And its the simplest thing to introduce a policy that will encourage carpooling or less driving.
Changing driver behavior is hard.
Story byCate Lawrence
Cate Lawrence is an Australian tech journo living in Berlin.
